So, our first year in Dubai has passed. And what an adventure it has been, what a challenge and what many opportunities for us all. The 5th of March 2010, me and the kids left a snowy and cold Lidingö, a house we loved and family and friends that we love, a job I loved and schools they loved. The whole house had been packed and shiped on a boat to cross the world, the IKEA beds and our Mio soffa...not to mention grandma´s old table and the crystal chandalier that I inherited years ago which should have been storaged in Lidingö... God, all the things that went wrong with the move, it would take me days to tell you about it all. Never mind, it's gone and forgotten now. Character building, that´s what it was.
We landed safely in the sun and the sand. And the rest is history, I think. Or in my blog anyway. So how can I sum up these past 12 month of our lives. This is where I get all emotional and start crying...No, seriously...I just have to look at the kids to see how much they have grown, how much we have all grown. In different ways of course. And how tight we are as a family. And how much more fun I have with my husband and with my kids. Of course the sun helps a lot, and our maid helps even more. The fact that I can stay home more and not have to stress to work every morning is a blessing. And that I can spend so much time watching James grow up, but still leave him with his nanny when I want to play golf...that is a luxury. There is no other word for it...but luxury.
Well, there is actually another word for it as well; unreal. Or I could use a few other words from the thesaurus; artificial, dreamlike, fabulous, hallucinatory, romantic and unbelievable. Yes, they all go under the word unreal. There you go. And yes, they all pretty much sum up our life down here. The kids have grown so much and they learn so much. They all speak English very well, with an American twang. Isabelle has gone from not saying a word to being practically fluent. She mixes languages as well, like: mamma, kan du ge mig a pencil eller kan jag få an icecream. The other day, when doing her maths homework (as you do in Dubai when you´re five) she said: mum, how do you say eleven in Swedish? It will be good for them to spend the summer in Sweden... It has been a long time since we were home. For many reasons we decided not to go home for christmas. For practical reasons, like no winter clothes, expensive flights, etc, but also emotional ones. We wanted the girls to feel more rooted in Dubai and spend a longer period of time here without disruption. And it kind of worked. Emma doesn't talk about Sweden much at all anymore (whether it's good or bad I don't know, we've probably scared her for life...) and Isabelle has been really happy at school lately. She so much enjoys learning, she really is like a sponge. Emma reads almost fluently in both Swedish and English. And she is doing so well in maths. I really am extremely proud of her. But I know, even though she doesn't say it anymore, that she misses her friends in Sweden. The ones she has here, are just not the same. She is used to being one of the youngest in Sweden, and here she is one of the oldest in her class. And many of the expat kids are quite childish and overprotected.
However, the opportunities here in Dubai are abundant. For us and for the kids. That is a fact. If I wanted to I could spend my whole days going to different classes for mums; dancing, riding, painting, jewellery making, coffee mornings, champange brunches....but I don't. Obviously. The other day, Jon was talking to a new employee at their office, a Swedish woman in finance or maybe it was HR. She asked how his wife was getting on being at home and everything. He said that I found it hard sometimes being home and that I missed working, and with a smile she said: She´ll change her mind, you´ll see.... :-) And I kind of understand what she meant. In Sweden people think you are odd if you stay at home with your kids or wants to be a housewife. You are expected to miss your job and go back to your career and let daycare do the job. And it's ok to only spend 2 hours a day with your kids and feed them frozen meetballs and macaronies everyother day. But it's definitely NOT ok to stay at home when you kids go school. Whatever would you do with your day?? The thing is, in Sweden you would be completely bored and alone if you did stay at home. In Dubai it's different. This place is built on expat wives. And that's the truth. So who am I to argue? Or rather, who am I not to make the most of it all?
Even if it does make me feel less equal at times, and 100% mother and wife at times and less of anything else. I have discovered that there are many ways you can enjoy being a mother and wife, and the Swedish way isn't the only way. Even if the Swedish way is the more equal way, it's not necessarily the right way. But the difference is, in Sweden you have a choice, here you sort of don't. Or actually, in Sweden you don't either, cause you could never afford to live on one salary anyway, who am i kidding...But anyway, I don't have to clean the house and I don't have to pay the bills. That helps. A lot. How on earth will we get used to reality again? Because we will have to. And I'm sure that we will, eventually, but I'm not sure it will be easy... But that's another story and another year.
Two weeks left until we go home to Sweden for easter. 12 days and counting, as Isabelle said today. She has even made a chart on her door, so she can check every day that passes by until take off.
